Bus note 70

Girl in green dress;
        same green as the stop
        she stepped up from.
Everywhere is pebbledash
below delicious clouds.
        Past flyover
        with shadows
and past the Quarter's clock.
        Ring
        road
to Spring Hill
        and with Tesco cyst
        too vast
the holy terracotta library.
        .

Walls

Bus note 69

        City Road.
        Dudley Road.
White can't quite trust
African's directions.
        She steps off
        to look about
        for paler guide.
Icknield Port Road.
        Outside one house
        hang heavy
        headed roses.
From nextdoor's window
Jesus stares out
not smiling.

Portrait 7

                  You could peel
             the clementine
                        but you ask me to

    service     to and fro

                   saying hello (that is
            touching thumbs
                     or looking longer)

    shown palm with
            mehndi fades

     Little you thumps big him
      where the spine
           is winding down

               growing old
           
                 but this picture you

        You shut the door
                     and have to tell

   Painting with the worn brush
                                   delicately

    You make:
                beautiful, this
             hardly there
                 

Bus note 68

        Two in silence
        mouthing prayers:
flaking bindi at bridge,
round face in repose;
        delicate taqiyah rests
        above young beard.
Ladywood wastes again,
        looking a strain
        on first thing eyes
till we're past
        and the beads
        run on through
        the different fingers.

On Windmill Lane

Bus note 67

Long and slow line
of cars turning in
to Hallfield school
        carrying rich
        and legitimate children;
dear lumps
of expectation
        capped and hatted,
        red and green.
The bus waits and waits.
        Tap out riled and
        displaced patterns
on jutting, resistant knees.